Today we’d like to introduce you to Sam Vokey.
Sam Vokey, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
I was never a mainstream guy and always found myself hanging out with the other fringe members who were often creative. In high school and college I took an art class every semester and when I graduated with a degree in English Lit. And Religion with a minor in Studio Art I decided to paint. My Dad was worried about me and put me in touch with a successful Boston artist that he knew and that man gave me a scholarship to a little European-style Atelier on Newbury Street. The artist was Robert Douglas Hunter and the school was the R.H. Ives Gammell School. There I learned how to draw and paint and after 4 years I was on my way.
We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
I am concentrating on landscapes in oil at the moment. My goal is to create the illusion of reality, a window into nature, but at the same time I am not hiding the process and I want my viewers and patrons to be aware of the paint and the way that I am handling it. This is something of a paradox, to strive to attain realism without hiding the process but I want to invoke nature more than copy her and the language of the paint is what interests me more and more. An artist can bring a lyrical quality to a painting using lots of techniques, including paint handling and design that can add a soul to the realism – something beyond just the image, something that resonates in the mind of the viewer with an echo of archetype or memory or music.
Some paintings just have more “presence” than others and that is what I’m chasing in my work. It’s like some of the rock and roll and blues music that I admire – the heavier the better!
What do you know now that you wished you had learned earlier?
Learn to draw as early as possible and find an artist local to you that you admire and watch them work.
Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
See my work on my website www.samvokey.com and there you can see a list of galleries.
My local galleries are:
The Guild of Boston Artists, 162, Newbury Street, Boston
Powers Gallery, Acton, MA
Tree’s Place, Orleans, MA
Bonita Gallery, Portsmouth, NH
Contact Info:
- Website: www.samvokey.com
- Email: info@samvokey.com
- Instagram: @samvokeyart
Image Credit:
bill@billkipp.com
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